Detroit Free Press Columnist

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All that was missing from the surrealism of an inspirational Olympic star morphing into a murder defendant was a police chase down a Pretoria freeway in a white Ford Bronco with onlookers shrieking "Go, Blade Runner, Go!" But there are unavoidable similarities between Oscar Pistorius' arrest in the shooting death of his girlfriend and O.J. Simpson's sensationalized arrest and trial in the death of his ex-wife and her male friend almost 20 years ago.

The biggest resemblance is how -- again -- national celebrity meshes with criminal justice.

Many still find it difficult to suddenly think the worst about those in which they once believed the best. But you'd think that with idols falling from the clouds as though it were a thunderstorm, we might finally attain some important perspective on the true fragility of celebrity.

Why is it that we're in constant need of reminders these high-profile sports figures are as susceptible to gravity as the rest of us?

They're not heroes. They're human.

Pistorius was born without fibulas in both legs. He became a dual-amputee before his 1st birthday. But that didn't deter him from becoming a world-class sprinter with the benefit of carbon-fiber blades on both legs. Despite protests that his prosthetics gave him an unnatural advantage over other able-bodied competitors, Pistorius ran in the London Olympics last year.

He's a national hero in South Africa.

And now Pistorius sits in a Pretoria police station jail awaiting a bail hearing. He is charged with premeditated murder.

Pistorius is entitled to his fair hearing in court. Could this have been a case of panic and mistaken identity? Are prosecutors overreaching in their investigation because of the suspect's huge prominence? Or he is nothing more than a violent thug swept up in his own self-importance?

Pistorius says he feared his lavish home in a gated community in suburban Pretoria was getting broken into at 4 a.m. He mistook his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a budding star in her own right, for an intruder. She was reportedly shot four times through a bathroom door.

Pistorius has proclaimed his innocence. His family issued a statement Saturday criticizing the tone of the criminal investigation.

I don't pretend to know what happened in Pistorius' home. The government believes it was the equivalent of first-degree murder in the U.S. Who knows? Maybe it was a tragic accident. We must allow the legal process to play out.

But is it even possible today for a court proceeding involving a celebrity not to eventually devolve into a sensationalized freak show?

The O.J. trial proved that the prevailing color of justice was neither black nor white, but rather green. Those with equal amounts of fame and fortune are more likely to walk free even if the evidence heavily tilts against them. The case also ignited the "reality television" genre, triggering a collective voyeurism that only worsened as subsequent high-profile criminal trials and investigations became fodder for nightly cable programming.

The justice system is supposed to speak for the victims, those who tragically no longer can speak for themselves or fear taking on the more powerful because they're afraid of damaging retribution. But in the years since O.J., it too often has become a sideshow in which the victims are forgotten and everyone's fixated instead on the celebrity who stands accused.

South Africa should brace itself if Pistorius eventually stands trial.